Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Who doesn't love the tangy, tasty, sharp and light savour of this lovely yellow fruit? I am now in week two of the Wilton course of cake decorating and this week's commission is to bring in some pre-iced cupcakes. Having long had a craving for lemon cupcakes, I baked a batch earlier:

and hastily iced them with some fluffy, well beaten buttercream. Delish!

The recipe was great, very quick and simple - perhaps a bit too much baking powder (it asked for 1½ teaspoons), as they nearly slobbed over the edges of the cupcake papers. I got the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hummingbird-Bakery-Cookbook-Tarek-Malouf/dp/1845978307At the course tomorrow I'll be learning how to pipe The Rose and I hope to come back a buttercream pro (to some extent...!). In the meantime, for anyone who hasn't come across him yet, here is the inimitable Dan Lepard's Lemon Butter Cake. All I can say to you is, beat it up, bake it and savour a lemon treat that's very hard to beat...

Heat oven to 170C (same for fan assisted)/335F/gas mark 3-4. Line the bottom and sides of a 2lb loaf tin with nonstick baking parchment.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the melted butter, condensed milk, 125g of the caster sugar, egg yolks, 100ml of the lemon juice (saving the other 25ml in a cup) and two-thirds of the zest until smooth and the sugar has dissolved.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg white with the remaining 25g of sugar to a soft meringue. Sift together the flour and baking powder, beat this into the lemon mixture until smooth, then fold through the meringue quickly and evenly. Tip the mixture into the cake tin and smooth the top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. When cool, beat remaining lemon zest with the icing sugar and the reserved 25ml lemon juice (adding a bit of water to soften it if necessary), and slather this over the top of the cooled cake.

About Me

A cook who eats, with eyes bigger than her belly, talking about more food all the while - lovin' every minute!!
Very excited to have recently set up my new cake decorating business, Cake Fantasy
*squeak of excitement*